Author's Note: So there are going to be 60 chapters in this story, I am currently working on 58 and 59 at the moment.

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Chapter 57 – Friends

Coulson stood outside Stark tower in awe, it had been a while since he had been here, and it had still been under construction back then. The team also stood in silence, waiting for their leader, they didn't talk much anymore, not since the fire, not since they lost Skye. Taking a deep breath Coulson walked into the lobby, followed by his team, where Maria Hill was waiting for them.

Maria had never been one for smiles but she gave a weak one at the sight of the ragged team, she didn't bother to greet the others, focusing solely on Coulson, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"No," Coulson shook his head, "But I'm not sure we can do this alone anymore."

Maria just nodded once in response before leading Coulson and the team to the elevator, once inside the former deputy director of SHIELD pressed the button for the top floor. Not wanting to wait in silence Maria spoke, "I was sorry to hear about your hacker."

She was met by silence, only receiving a glare from May, the message was clear, 'drop it'.

Coulson spoke next, pretending that Hill never had, "Are they all here?"

Maria nodded, "Even Romanoff and Barton."

"Do they know I'm here?"

This time Maria shook her head, "They were all here already. I thought you could surprise them."

Coulson nodded in response, "Does Rogers know? I was never sure if Fury told him, he was level eight after all."

Again Maria shook her head but this time she didn't say anything, she didn't have time. They had arrived.

Coulson wasn't sure what would await him at the top of Stark tower but whatever it was it wasn't what he found up there. The entirety of the Avengers were waiting up there but they all had their backs to the elevator and they were arguing.

Coulson raised an eyebrow at the sight but said nothing as he and his team stepped off the elevator.

"Sir," Stark's AI JARVIS spoke, "Miss Hill is here to see you."

Tony Stark didn't turn around, "Tell her I'm busy."

Maria crossed her arms, "I brought someone to see you."

Again Stark didn't turn around, neither did any of the other Avengers, "If it's Fury tell him I liked him better when he was dead."

Coulson took this opportunity to speak up, "What about me? Did you like me better dead?"

Coulson wasn't sure he'd ever seen a group of people turn around so quickly.

Instead of speaking to Coulson Stark turned to Steve Rogers, "I'm seeing things, right?"

Captain America shook his head, "Not unless we all are."

This time Stark turned to Doctor Banner, "Did you spike our drinks again?"

Bruce shook his head, not taking his eyes off the dead man who had just stepped off the elevator.

The silence that followed was awkward and Coulson found himself thinking about what snarky comment Skye would come up with to break the ice. Pulling himself back from depressing thoughts about Skye Coulson spoke to Stark, "I hear you're privatising world peace."

"No," Stark snapped.

Coulson raised an eyebrow, "No? So you're not privatising world peace?"

"No," Stark snapped again, "You don't get to come in here and pretend nothing happened. You died."

Coulson shrugged, "Temporarily. I'm all better now." He could almost hear May groan behind him, it was a pretty bad joke after all.

Stark just stared at Coulson, almost in shock that the man dared joke about his own death.

Natasha was the next one to break the silence, taking a step forward she looked Coulson up and down, "I wondered when you would turn up."

Before Coulson could respond Stark spoke again, "You knew," When the Black Widow just raised an eyebrow, the billionaire just sighed, "Raise your hand if you DIDN'T know." Tony looked annoyed as he looked around at his team mates, only Banner and Rogers had their hands in the air, "Thor? You knew? I expected Katniss, even Capsicle, but you?" There was a sense of betrayal in Tony's voice.

"Fear not, Stark," Thor replied, "I have known for only seven of your days."

"And you didn't think to tell us?" This time it was Steve who spoke to Thor.

"Hey," Coulson snapped, "Still here."

"Sorry," Tony mumbled, finally looking at Coulson, "I'm assuming it was Fury who faked your death."

"He did," Coulson replied, deciding it wasn't the time or the place to go into details.

"I guess we have a lot to talk about then," Stark replied, "Maybe we should move this to the lounge." He looked behind Coulson, as if just seeing his team for the first time, "And maybe you could introduce us to your friends."

Coulson nodded and walked down to the lounge area, as he passed Stark the billionaire poked him, as if making sure he was actually real.

Natasha quickly pulled Simmons aside before the biochemist could join the others in the lounge, "What happened? Where's Skye?"

"There was a fire, she didn't…" Simmons whispered, unable to finish the sentence but it was enough for Natasha to know that the hacker wouldn't be joining them.

"I'm sorry," Natasha replied softly.

Simmons quickly wiped away tears that were beginning to form, "Did you know she was pregnant?" When Natasha just shook her head Simmons nodded weakly, "Since London. It would have been a boy. The others didn't know but I did. I knew."

"Simmons…" Natasha sighed, sensing the grief in the girl's voice.

Simmons pulled away from the Black Widow, "I should join the team." Natasha let her walk away.

When Simmons joined the team in the lounge only Clint noticed that Natasha didn't join them.

Alone on the balcony Natasha dialled a number that Fury had given her almost a year ago, in case of emergency. It rang longer than she thought it would but eventually Grant Ward picked up.

"I told you three days ago where you could shove it, Fury," Ward growled over the phone, but before Natasha could interrupt the specialist continued, "Yes, I can speak, I've been able to for months, get over it. Changing your number doesn't change anything."

"I'm not sure what's more insulting," Natasha almost smiled, "The fact that you think I'm a one eyed man or that you just told me to get lost."

"Romanoff," Ward growled, "I'm not in the mood. To save time I'll assume Barton was the one who told you I could talk and that I'm the one following Coulson. I'm not working for Fury anymore, so get to the point. What do you want?"

"I heard about Skye," Natasha sighed, "What happened?"

"I made a mistake and she paid for it," Ward replied angrily.

"Do you know who did this?" Natasha asked, almost afraid of the answer.

"Yes," Ward replied briefly.

"Have you done anything about them?"

"Not yet."

"Let me know if you need help," Natasha replied, "I'll help you string them up."

Ward remained silent.

Natasha sighed, "Coulson and his team are here."

"I don't care," Ward replied, "They're not my problem. Not anymore."

"You can't blame them?" Natasha asked surprised.

"They left her alone," Ward growled, "I blame them, I blame Fury for not sending the backup I asked for, I blame the man who did this but mostly I blame myself. I wasn't there for her, for them."

Natasha knew immediately what Ward was talking about, "The baby was yours?"

The line went dead.

It didn't matter, Natasha had her answer but it wasn't one she would share. Coulson and his team had enough trouble dealing with the loss of Skye, the Black Widow wasn't sure they could handle the fact that their friend had been lying to them for months, that someone they all considered a traitor had been so close to them all for so many months. No, this was just another secret the spy had to keep.

Sighing Natasha headed back inside and joined the other Avengers as they caught up on Coulson's life. She had a quick look around at the remains of Coulson's team and Natasha realized in an instant that despite the small smiles Skye's death had broken them. The Black Widow wasn't entirely sure that they could ever be fixed.

Clint raised an eyebrow when Natasha joined them on the lounge, "Who were you talking to?"

Natasha shrugged, "A friend."

It didn't take Clint long to figure it out.

On the other side of the world, all the way back in Australia, Ward put the phone down as a nurse came into the small room, there was no way the specialist was going to risk getting kicked out of the hospital for using a phone, not now. Romanoff could infer whatever she liked from Ward's silence, in fact it was probably better that he didn't tell her the truth out right anyway. It gave the assassin deniability if the topic ever did come up again in the future, not that Ward thought it would.

The nurse smiled at Ward, "How's my favourite patient today?"

"Sleeping thankfully," Ward smiled, eyes sweeping over to the plastic crib on one side of him.

"And his mother?" The nurse asked, eyes moving to the woman in the bed on the other side of Ward.

"No change," Ward sighed.

The nurse nodded sadly, "We'll let him get some sleep then, lord knows he needs it and from the looks of it so do you."

"I'm fine," Ward argued.

"You're lying," The nurse smiled, "But I won't tell."

"Thanks," Ward smiled as the nurse left. When he was alone Ward reached to the bed and squeezed the sleeping hacker's hand, "Come on, Rookie. You've got to come back to me. To both of us." And for the first time in a week Skye's hand squeezed back.

Author's Note: See, not completely evil.

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